TITLE:
Effects of Spatial Row Arrangement and Time of Planting Intercrops on Performance of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under Maize (Zea mays L.)—Groundnut Intercropping System in Ejura
AUTHORS:
Fuseini Bawaror Bugilla, Kwadwo Gyasi Santo, Abdul Aziz Khalid, Daniel Ntiamoah Afreh, Kwabena Atakora, Muntala Abdulai
KEYWORDS:
Intercropping, Groundnut, Maize, Growth, Yield, Time, Row Arrangement
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.14 No.3,
March
24,
2023
ABSTRACT: In monoculture, crop failure due to biotic or abiotic causes can result
in partial or total output failure. The yield, socio-economic, and
environmental effects of intercropping on the farmer and the environment as a
whole have not received much attention. There is a dearth of knowledge on the
productivity of maize-groundnut intercrops in Ghana regarding the relative
timing of planting and spatial arrangement of component crops. Therefore, the
objective of the study was to determine the effects of spatial row arrangement
and the time of planting intercrops on the productivity
of groundnut under maize-groundnut intercropping. The 5× 3 factorial
field experiment was undertaken at the Miminaso
community in the Ejura-Sekyedumase municipality of the Ashanti Region of Ghana during the 2020 cropping
seasons. Treatments were evaluated in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD)
with three replicates. The levels of row arrangement of intercrops were: one
row of maize and one row of groundnut (1M1G), one row of maize and two rows of
groundnut (1M2G), two rows of maize and one row of groundnut (2M1G), two rows
of maize and two rows of groundnut (2M2G), sole maize and sole groundnut (M/G).
The levels of time of introducing groundnut included simultaneous planting of
intercrops (0 WAP), planting groundnut one week after planting maize (1 WAP)
and planting groundnut two weeks after planting maize (2 WAP). There were
significant (P 0.05) treatment interactions for pod and seed yields
of groundnut throughout the study. The highest groundnut pod yields of 1815.00
kg/ha and 2359.00 kg/ha were recorded by the 0WAP × 1M2G treatment in the major and minor seasons of 2020, respectively,
while the highest groundnut seed yields of 741.00 kg/ha and 726.00 kg/ha were
recorded in the major and minor rainy seasons of 2020 by 1WAP × G and 0WAP × G treatments, respectively. The highest seed yields of groundnut (404
kg/ha and 637 kg/ha for major and minor rainy seasons, respectively) were
produced by 1WAP × 2M2G.